Keala Mahe
didn’t make the basketball team when he tried out a year ago. Now he’s one of
the top wrestlers in the state.

Mahe, a junior
on the Hillcrest High School wrestling team, took fourth place at 220 pounds at the 4A state championships in
February.

“Just knowing
that all the hard work pays off, all the running, all the conditioning,
listening to coaches talk about the same things over and over; but just knowing
that all of it paid off, it makes you feel good,” Mahe said.

In 2016, Mahe
came up one match short of the placing rounds (sixth or better). With his
commitment level raised this season, he achieved his goals.

“He had all of
the tools to do well last year,” said head coach Gentry Gasser. “But (this
season) he was more committed and more excited and worked harder from day one
to day end-of-the-season. He was working as hard as he could to get better and
that was what made the difference for him.”

Mahe said he was
frustrated with how he had ended in 2016, and it was his trust in his coach that
pushed him higher. After winning his opening matches of the season, Mahe
received an important tip.

“I remember Coach
told me I can’t do the same thing over and over again, ‘you gotta try new moves
or you gotta try what the coach wants’ because if we trust in what the
coach wants then I’ll have the success that I wanted, and I did,” Mahe said.

In the final two
tournaments of the season, Gasser said Mahe defeated a lot of wrestlers who
beat him earlier in the year. “He just learns and makes improvements every time
he steps on the mat,” he said.

Heading into
next season, Gasser said the sky is the limit for Mahe.

“If he comes out
with the same drive next year and gets a little bit of extra time in the
offseason, he’ll be challenging for a state championship and should be making a
bigger splash in some of the bigger tournaments,” he said.

But Mahe, the
first Hillcrest wrestler to place at state in at least five years, wasn’t the
only Husky to step on the podium. Junior Sariah Gist at 126 pounds placed third in Utah’s all-girls
state wrestling tournament.

“Her ability to
go out and wrestle with the girls and do really well just shows that she’s got
the capabilities there so it was really cool for her,” Gasser said.

Gasser said the all-girls
tournament had 40 wrestlers total, compared to 13 it had a year ago. Gasser expects its
popularity to increase, which bodes well for Hillcrest.

“I’ve been here
four years and we’ve always had two or three girls on the team every year. I
only see that number growing,” he said.

Gist follows in
the legacy left behind by Zamantha Mulder, the first female wrestler from Utah
to earn a college wrestling scholarship. She is now a sophomore at McKendree
University in Illinois.

Huskies had two
other wrestlers qualify for state in senior Alex Wonders and sophomore Noah
Nicholls. Though it may not come as quick as the coach would like, it’s part of
the building blueprint.

“Getting kids
qualified for state, getting kids placing at state, it’s all part of the
process. It’s slower than I’d like it to be as a coach but we’re making that
progress,” Gasser said.

Gasser and the
coaching staff hope to spend more time working with the wrestlers in the
offseason to go along with increasing the numbers of the program.

“If they can get
out on a mat in a competition, they will fall in love with it and they’ll never
quit,” he said. “Our big push right now is to increase the numbers of wrestlers
we have and we think that will help push us to the next level.”